Pete Illidge: Underwater detective

When Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority maritime archaeologist Pete Illidge describes seeing a historic shipwreck in the Great Barrier Reef for the first time, it’s like you’re swimming underwater alongside him.

First, there’s spectacular sea life congregating around the wreck — fish, coral, the occasional marine turtle. Then the physical wreck itself reminds you of the tragedy and the lives lost.

“Once you start thinking past your surrounds and thinking about the people lost on the wreck it’s really sad,” he says.

“But the interesting part about excavating a shipwreck is that you can step back in history.

“When you’ve actually got an artefact in your hand — an artefact someone used 200 years ago and it’s hardly moved from where they last used it —that’s exciting stuff.

“It tells us a lot about how people lived.”

In Queensland, there are about 1400 shipwrecks. About 800 of those are in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, which spans 2300 kilometres along the Queensland coast.

Among the most well-known is the HMS Pandora, the Royal Navy warship that sank in 1791 after being dispatched to the South Pacific in pursuit of the infamous Bounty mutineers.

Also off Townsville is the now famous dive site, the SS Yongala — this luxury passenger vessel disappeared in a cyclone south of Townsville in 1911 with no survivors.

“Maritime archaeology is a bit like detective work. You do a lot of research and you do eventually get out into the field and you don’t always find what you expect,” he says.

“Sometimes you don’t always get the wreck you’re looking for.

“We’ve had occasions where we’ve found the wreck and thought: ‘Wow! This is it! That’s fantastic!’ and it’s just turned out to be a totally different wreck. But, that’s exciting itself.”

Attracted to maritime archaeology from about six years old — and inspired by Jacques Cousteau’s great works — Pete’s dedicated his professional life to unlocking the secrets of the sea.

“Out maritime heritage is fragile and irreplaceable resource. And we really need to look after it.”